17 June 2013

At almost the exact time that I was sat at the SMMT Summit this week listening to Citroen’s managing director Linda Jackson talk on the problems facing with recruitment in auto retail I also received an email from Jobco-op blaming retailers for deterring good candidates.

As Mrs Jackson pointed out, in a sales company having the right person has a direct impact on the bottom line. And as she said: ‘to attract the right person you need to be attractive, surely.’ She raised the debate: ‘Is the car industry sexy? Do the brightest talents really want to come and work with us?’

To condense her argument, she believes that sales staff in retailers need to have a much better grasp of new technology both of that in the cars as they become ever more complex, but also on the newer ways to selling, such as using video walk-arounds for used cars.

Meanwhile, Jobco-op director Derek Webb believes retailers often put off good candidates by using poor interview processes. He points out: ‘Strong candidates for in-demand positions often have a pretty good idea of their own worth and, if the interview they attend is piecemeal and amateurish, then they are unlikely to want to take their application any further.’

So what do we do to make car sales sexy and attract the right sales people?
Mrs Jackson suggested looking to other industries. But why not just promote those aspects that she listed. After all, this past week has seen Apple announce it’s latest operating system will work with cars for the first time.

Surely it’s going to be cool to sell a car with the latest technology. Isn’t this the attractor the industry can use to bring in the best candidates?

Tristan Young

Tags: Citroen, Linda Jackson, recruiting, SMMT conference, staff recruitment